The proliferation of capable user devices, pervasive communication, and increased bandwidth has provided opportunity for many enhanced services for users. One example is video calling. Once the domain of high-end, dedicated systems from vendors such as POLYCOM®, video calling has become available to the average consumer at a reasonable cost. For example, the Biscotti™ device, available from Biscotti, Inc., provides an inexpensive tool to allow video calling using a high-definition television and an Internet connection. More generally, a class of devices, which have been described as “video calling devices” but are referred to herein as video communication devices (“VCDs”) can be simultaneously connected to a display (such as a television, to name one example) and a source of content (such as a set-top box (“STB”), to name an example) in a pass-through configuration and can have a network connection and/or sensors such as a camera, a microphone, infrared sensors, and/or other suitable sensors. Such devices present a powerful platform for various applications. Examples include, without limitation, video calling, instant messaging, presence detection, status updates, media streaming over the Internet, web content viewing, gaming, and DVR capability. Another example of such value added services is the introduction of online gaming. Rather than playing a game by him- or herself, a user now can play most games in a multiplayer mode, using communication over the Internet or another network.
Enabling such services is a new class of user device, which generally features relatively high-end processing capability (which would have been unthinkable outside supercomputing labs just a few years ago), substantial random access memory, and relatively vast non-transient storage capabilities, including hard drives, solid state drives, and the like. Such user devices can include, without limitation, the VCDs mentioned above, the presence detection devices (“PDDs”) described in the '279 Application, various video game consoles, and the like. Such devices generally have a reliable, and relatively high-speed, connection to the Internet (to enable the value added services) and significant amounts of downtime, in which the processing and other capabilities of the devices are unused.
In the context of video communications, while some existing devices provide inexpensive ways for a user to engage in video calls, the entire field of video calling (and viewing video generally) traditionally tends to be static, in the sense that the image viewed does not change with the position of the viewer. This is very much unlike a real-life experience. For example, when a person looks through a window, what that person sees through the window changes depending on the person's perspective relative to the window. If the person gets closer to the window, he or she has broader field of view of the scene on the other side of the window (i.e., can see more of the area on the other side of the window). Conversely, if the person moves further way, he or she has a narrower field of view. If a person moves to the right relative to the window, the field of view will shift toward the left, and so forth. In conventional video communications (including, without limitation, video calling as well as other video communications, such as television and video gaming), the fact that the image does not change with position of the viewer makes the interaction feel less lifelike and less real.
Hence, there is a need for solutions that allow for more flexible and robust display and apparent view functionalities based on presence and position information of a user, and some such solutions can employ the powerful user devices already resident in many users' homes.